Insight Radical: where art meets science
THE ART WORLD is not often regarded as being similar to the scientific community. The stereotype of an artist does not usually seem in line with that of the nerdy or nutty scientist. However, a residency that took place in the science laboratories of the Free Radical Centre at Melbourne University debunks many of the preconceptions. The artists’ studios and the scientists’ laboratories share many similarities where the unique investigation of quite focused and specific ideas is explored in finite detail.
Throughout 2012, six artists – Tony Lloyd, Steve Lopes, Anna Madeleine, Natalie O’Connor, Peter Sharp and Ruth Waller – took part in a residency program, Insight Radical, which saw each of them spend time with a group of scientists all working on and developing research around free radicals. The scientists worked with the artists, giving demonstrations of their experiments and discussing the ‘real world’ impact of their research.
Insight Radical is a unique project that has brought together seemingly disparate worlds and what the residency has highlighted is two-fold. Firstly, the importance of science for art and artists with the development of new technology and improving the archival elements of their chosen material; and secondly, that the artist and the scientist hold similar values in looking at and exploring the world. From within their respective studios and laboratories, these professionals investigate ideas in finite ways most of us won’t ever comprehend.
An extended essay about the project, by Owen Craven, is published in Issue 23 of Artist Profile.
EXHIBITION
30 July to 30 August, 2013
Griffin Gallery, London
The response to Artist Profile over time has shown that getting behind artists and their art matters to you as it does to us. To...
Remembering the incredible life of Charles Blackman OBE, who has passed away one week after his 90th birthday.
Congratulations to this year’s artists selected to take part in the 27th annual ‘Primavera: Young Australian Artists’ show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia...
Congratulations to Brook Andrew, who has been announced as the Artistic Director of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, taking place in 2020.
Congratulations to Yvette Coppersmith, Yukultji Napangati and Kaylene Whiskey, who have been awarded the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes respectively.
‘JUST LET IT GO’ ASKS THIS ISSUE’S cover artist, Raquel Ormella, in the wonderful embroidery above. Like most of Ormella’s works it has a...
Emerging Melbourne photographer James Bugg takes home the $50,000 2018 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (MCPP).
Congratulations to Steve Lopes, who has won the 2018 Gallipoli Art Prize.
Applications for 2019 Bundanon Trust Artist-in-Residence program are now open.